Steven Street/Vini Reilly

[Morrissey_Boro]

who do you believe wrote Viva Hate

for those who saw the Morrissey documentary 'Jewel In The Crown' that was uploaded the other day. Both Seven Street and Vini Reilly clamed to have written the music on the album i was just wondering who you all think
really wrote the album ?

 

[charlie tango]

those were the days

 

[Benton]

> who do you believe wrote Viva Hate

> for those who saw the Morrissey documentary 'Jewel In The Crown' that was
> uploaded the other day. Both Seven Street and Vini Reilly clamed to have
> written the music on the album i was just wondering who you all think
> really wrote the album ?

If I was on trial for my life, I'm not sure I'd want Vini as my main defence witness.

Has Stephen Street written any tunes since working with Moz?

 

[imatthws]

Johnny Marr...

 

[dazzak]

Even listening to the album you can kind of guess which songs were written by who from the style. Street's more classical pop and Vini's more dark indie type stuff. I think they're all credited to Street which seems very unfair. My guess is that Vini played a bigger part in Late Night Maudlin Street, Alsatian Cousin, Little Man What Now and Margaret On The Guillotine. It's quite obvious that Street wrote Suedehead, Everday Is Like Sunday, I Don't Mind If You Forget Me and Dial-A-Cliche. The rest are anyone's guess.

 

[imatthws]

Wasn't Bengali and one or two others left over from The Smiths?

 

[dazzak]

Not really sure. How would that work though? Marr's leftover tapes or something?

 

[dazzak]

He produced the album of some little band. Apparently they're called The Kaiser Chiefs or something.

 

[imatthws]

I remember reading it in the severed alliance... maybe he taught Moz the chords...

 

[Benton]

> He produced the album of some little band. Apparently they're called The
> Kaiser Chiefs or something.

I know that he's always busy, busy, busy production-wise - but wasn't sure whether he had any non-moz writing credits. He reminded me of Phil Collins when I saw him on that doc.

 

[AnthonyGlamour]

> I remember reading it in the severed alliance... maybe he taught Moz the
> chords...

But it also says in the sevrered alliance that the two versions differed vastly.

Maybe it was a completely new tune but the same lyrics.

And it was Ivor Perry, not Marr that wrote the first 'Bengali'

It seems to me that Street wrote the basic tunes & Vini and co turned them into songs.
That was the story behind Alsatian Cousin.
Much like in Blur, when Damon wrote the basics & Graham added his magic.

But it makes me laugh that Vini kept quiet until Viva Hate was reissued in 1997.
To be fair, his name wasn't mentioned at all on that.

 

[Tomi]

Well I think Graham Coxon still regards Steven Street very highly for his musical input ... even on his most recent release referring to it as a 'collaboration' ... and Street did produce quite a lot of great Blur stuff ... Damon was also generous in his praise.

 

[Orson Swells]

The first demo tape Street gave to Morrissey contained the music for what became Everyday, Angel, and Bengali. Apparently some of the original Street demo music was very sparce until Reilly added his contribution and barely sound like the finished LP tracks. Although to be fair Vini didn't play on all the tracks - refusing to play on those he didn't actually like.

 

[C.W. McCall]

On which tracks didn't he play?

> The first demo tape Street gave to Morrissey contained the music for what
> became Everyday, Angel, and Bengali. Apparently some of the original
> Street demo music was very sparce until Reilly added his contribution and
> barely sound like the finished LP tracks. Although to be fair Vini didn't
> play on all the tracks - refusing to play on those he didn't actually
> like.

 

[Tomi]

I understand he didn't turn up to play on 'Suedehead', thinking the riff to be too predictable ... leaving Steven Street it play it himself.